Chapter Twelve: Third Person Kayla and H'chakde

All Kayla had felt in that moment was peace, and as if she weighed nothing at all. And it was the most pleasant feeling she had ever felt. No muscle aches from the tons of walking she had been doing over the past few days. No fear of the future, just pure bliss and warmth.

Sadly, it didn't last for long. As if a switch had been flipped, all her fear rushed and her body began to plummet toward the ground. But before her body could make contact with the solid surface below her everything went black again.

Kayla sat up in her bed gasping loudly, "It was just a dream." She tried to tell herself, but it was a sad fact. She was stuck here again. She let out a sigh running her fingers through her greasy hair. Feeling frustration from the icky feeling it gave her. Nonetheless she brushed it off and turned to the still sleeping Dreadlock just a few feet away from her.

Her attention for some reason remained on the creatures dreadlock like tendrils. For some reason, she had a sudden urge to run her hand along them. She already knew what they felt like because of their previous 'battle.' But she only got to touch them for a split second before being forced to let go.

Not being able to resist the temptation any longer, she stood and quietly ambled over to him. Climbing onto his bed so she was closer to his tendrils. She studied him for a few moments, unsure of her next move. The thought of how he would react only briefly ran through her mind.

He could very much throw her across the room again, with much ease. She cringed at the reminder of how her back ached for days after. But the brief moment of contemplation was not enough to stop her. If he wanted to harm her for touching his hair, then so be it.

She reached out taking one of them gently in her hands. She ran her hand along it stopping to trace the metal ring on it before finally letting it go. Soon she moved onto the next tendril.

This continued on for a few more minutes before a growl from the once sleeping form made her pause. She looked down into the eyes of the creature, before letting go of the current dreadlock she was fiddling with. "Morning Dreadlock. What lovely hair you have." She said sarcastically letting out a nervous chuckle as she slid off the bed and onto the ground. Taking only a few steps back.

H'chakde sat up letting out an annoyed growl as he glared at the ooman. The ooman pushed out her hip placing a fist on either side of her waist. She leaned forward slightly saying something in her own language with a snarky tone as she met the warrior's eyes.

H'chakde growled at this, he couldn't understand the oomans stupidity. She certainly knew he was stronger and that he could throw her with ease if he so wished, but she insisted on continuing her behavior. She had been nothing but a nuisance since she had first gotten there.

Silently he cursed the rules of his assignment before standing up and walking to his little armory to suit up for the day's hunt. He placed his bio-helmet on before grabbing a few shuriken, a medikit, his plasma caster and wrist blades.

He ran over a mental checklist making sure everything he would need was on him before turning to the ooman. Who was sat on her bed watching him intently. "We are going on a hunt." He began gesturing to his weapons then to the door. "You must behave and stay close, it can be very dangerous for your kind on this planet."

Kayla tilted her head slightly confused but nodded nonetheless, the ooman pointed up to her bag on the trophy shelf. "May I have that with me." Her words weren't very well translated but her message was clear.

The warrior shrugged reaching up and grabbing the pack tossing it down to her. The ooman bared her teeth rushing for the bag squeezing it tightly. H'chakde was slightly confused by the oomans actions, but brushed it off. A lot about her confused him. He gestured for the ooman to follow him as he approached the door.

The ooman held up a hand as if asking him to wait before grabbing something and putting it on her feet before scurrying to stand next to him. Quickly he scooped her up throwing her over his shoulder not willing to deal with her slow stubbornness today.

Much to his surprise the ooman didn't fight him and just laid peacefully on his shoulder. "Maybe you won't be as troublesome today." He said to himself as he opened the door to his room, he began heading toward the tyioe-te. Stopping by the dining hall for a brief moment to grab some rations and a single piece of meat for breakfast. He got only a few weird looks all of which were directed at the ooman.

H'chakde however, ignored them. He didn't have time to deal with it, he needed to get to the tyioe-te so he could begin his hunt. So he kept just munching his food, and walked past them.

Kayla couldn't help but grin to herself. Although she was slightly confused as to why she was being carried to wherever it was they were going. She didn't have to walk and that made her feel happy. She had done enough of that the past couple of weeks.

"No hurt leg muscles today!" She whispered to herself as she hung there her arms swinging back and forth lightly with Dreadlocks movement.

The happiness however, was short lived. When she was set down her eyes moved to around her and she began cursing at herself. She had an open opportunity to get directions to the ships but missed it, and for what? Saving herself another day of sore legs?

She glared at Dreadlock as he stepped toward one of the ships pressing a few buttons on the small keypad. She felt herself calm a little, she could make up for not knowing the location. If she could only learn how the shipped worked.

After Dreadlock finished punching in a code he let out a few chitters, which Kayla took as an order to get in the ship. Reluctantly she moved in and sat down on the ground only a few feet from the door. Dreadlock followed close behind and as soon as he was in he closed the door.

He walked up to another keypad in the ship and began punching more things into it. Kayla inched forward some trying to catch a glimpse of what he was putting in, but his large body blocked her view. She let out an annoyed huff at that.

"Where are we going anyway?" She asked. He seemed to ignore her question and just leaned back on the wall of the ship. That only grated her nerves more. "Um, Hey!?" She shouted up at him. He looked down at her letting out a loud click of acknowledgement.

She glared at him repeating her question, but he still didn't answer. Before she could ask again a sudden jolt made her fall to the ground with a oof. "Here." A random voice (that presumably came from the creature) said, accompanied by a slight amused trilling sound.

She stood up brushing herself off, "Are you making fun of me?" She asked placing her hands on her hips. The creature didn't answer just turned back to the computer, and pressing a single button which opened the door. He walked out of the pod gesturing for Kayla to follow, again she did so reluctantly. Letting out a quiet grumbling sound. Once she had place a foot out of the pod, her entire demeanor changed.

She was surrounded by large willow like trees. Their emerald green leaves adorned with light pink flowers scattered about them. She stood on luscious, and soft grass littered with different types of flowers and plants. Slowly her gaze moved from the ground to up above her. Her hazel eyes landing on a giant white butterfly like creature that flew over head.

Everything around her gave off a peaceful aura, seemingly plucked straight from a fairytale. Save for the ship behind her of course. And the distrubed dirt that was splayed about where they had landed.

A loud click cut through the silence, causing her attention to be brought to the source of the click. Dreadlock stood a few feet away from her his body slightly turned away from her. He gave a slight flick of his head yet again signaling for her to follow as he began to walk off.

Kayla groaned before running to catch up. Her annoyance seemed to be growing by the minute. He still hadn't answered, or even attempted to answer her earlier question. Something however told her she would know soon enough.

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Kayla had grown bored in the hours they had been walking. And Dreadlock showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. "Do you think we can take a break?" She felt herself whine, much to her own annoyance. "My legs are literally dying!"

Yet again, she was ignored. She let out a sigh, turning her head to look at more of the wildlife of the planet. Hoping to find something that would distract her mind from the pain in her legs. More giant willows, a new tree of some sort bearing fruit of some sort, as scary looking lizard, a lake. She halted, her entire self turning toward the body of water. The still water reminded her of her greasy hair, and the fact that she hadn't bathed in weeks.

A smile began to work it way onto her face as she fought the squeal that threatened to rip out of her. She began bolting toward the lake leaving Dreadlock behind. He would follow her soon enough, if not he would come looking. Once she reached the edged she untied the jacket from her waist and began undressing. But she was interrupted by an all too familiar click.

Turning her head her eyes landed on Dreadlock, who was standing only a few feet away from her. His arms crossed over his chest as he stared at her. Even through the mask, she could feel the glare on her.

But Kayla glared right back "Look I haven't bathed in over two weeks and in case you didn't know my kind needs to bathe in order to keep healthy." She pointed to the lake and began rubbing her arms. Acting as if she had a loofa of some sorts in her hand.

"So imma take a bath and you're going to look away and give me privacy. Got it?" As she finished she made a circular motion with her finger signalling for him to look away. He didn't, instead, he let out a series of demanding clicks and chitters pointing to the ground next to him. Gesturing for her to come back.

But Kayla wasn't going to give up. "Look imma take a bath whether you like it or not! So look that way." She said pointing away from the lake. He stomped his foot shaking his head.

"You can do whatever but I'm staying." A random recorded male voice said. Finally having enough Kayla pulled out another one of her frying pans and chucked it at his chest. It bounced off his armour having little effect. "Turn around!"

Dreadlock growled but turned anyway, allowing Kayla the time to finish undressing and move into the freezing lake. Slowly she walked out until she was hip deep and crouched down. Hoping that soon she would get used to the temperature of the water. Her eyes moved to her surroundings, yet again studying them as she always seemed to do.

The lake was surrounded by a smaller version of the weeping willows. With giant purple flowers floating in the middle of the lake and some even floating toward the edge as well. The water was clearer than glass and sparkled like thousands of little diamonds. Kayla began to worry that her icky body and hair would ruin the clearness of the water. But soon decided she didn't care and began rubbing as much dirt off of her as possible. The water would be fine.

"Oomans are such irritating creatures." H'chakde grumbled to himself as he stood. His eyes scanning his surroundings while the ooman did whatever it was that she was doing. He didn't want anything sneaking up on either of them.

It wasn't long before his attention was brought back to the ooman. She had made a soft noise of some sort. It was very similar to speaking but it had more rhythm, and the pitch of her voice had altered slightly. Making her sound less hostile than normal. He began recording it, hoping whatever she was saying would be useful later.

He turned his head slightly to look back at her, still being curious as to what she was doing. He found her kneeling in the water rubbing her arms vigorously. A focused and slightly annoyed look on her face as she did so. But despite her expression her tone of voice remained the same.

He lost interest with her rather quickly though, and moved back to searching. He turned his body a bit more to get a better look at their surroundings. Somehow though, he had missed the rock that was hurling at him.

It smashed into the side of his helmet, causing him to take a step back in surprise. The ooman shouted at him with her usual hostile tone. H'chakde growled at her, "What makes you think you have any right to throw rocks at me!" He shouted.

The ooman crossed her arms over her chest covering her milk glands repeating for him to turn around. He growled again turning his gaze away from her.

An irritated rush of air accompanied by the sound of water splashing is what followed their brief scuffle. Before he knew it ,the ooman was standing back at his side glaring up at him.

He growled placing his hand on her head and pushing it down so she was looking at the ground. "Mo." He said taking his hand away from her head. But as soon as he did, she looked right back at him.

He only had to repeat this a few more times before it finally stuck that she wasn't supposed to look directly at him. This made H'chakde growl with frustration. She should have listened the first time. It was such a simple command, and she wouldn't follow it.

Part of him wished he could just leave her here alone, or let her get killed during the hunt, but doing either of those meant being labeled as failure and dishonorable. Labels he wasn't going to allow to be placed onto him, no matter how irritating the ooman was. She would be broken soon enough, he just need to be patient. However, patience wasn't something he had a lot of.

He turned on his heel and began walking back to the path. Turning back for only a second to make sure the ooman was following him. Thankfully she was, all the while speaking gibberish in her language. The tone of her voice told him that she was asking a ton of questions. No doubt pertaining to the hunting trip, but instead of attempting to answer any of the questions. He decided to block her out and focus on the road ahead of him. He didn't want to lose hold of his temper and do something that would cause him to fail.

Kayla let out a long annoyed sighed, her gaze never leaving Dreadlock. "You going to answer me?" She asked. "Or are you still going to act like an ass and just ignore me?" She spoke irritably, running a bit to try and keep up. "Like it wouldn't hurt to tell me would it?" The silence that followed was her answer. Despite this she tried a few more times, before finally falling silent.

She turned her attention from him and back to her surroundings. Everything seemed peaceful here, a dramatic change from how things were on earth.

It wasn't until her eyes fell onto another one of the butterflies from before, that another memory popped into her head. It's presence making her heart race and ache all at the same time.

She tried her best to push it out of the forefront of her mind, and back to where she kept it hidden. She didn't want to think of it, not right now. But no matter how much she tried to her mind wandered back to that time. She was forced back into some of the worst memories she ever had.